Guj riots: Zakia Jafri's plea to make SIT report public rejected

A local court on Saturday rejected a plea by the widow of former Congress member of Parliament Ehsan Jaffrey, killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots, for making public the SIT report on the riots.

Metropolitan magistrate M M Bhatt, while rejecting the plea, said the Special Investigation Team is yet to submit material related to the report.

As per the Supreme Court order after SIT submits its full report on the complaint of Zakia Jaffery, conclusion was to be drawn by the metropolitan court.

Now that the investigation team has not yet submitted the full report, no conclusion can be drawn at this stage. Hence no action is required on the report now, the court said. The court had earlier directed the SIT to submit its full report by March 15.

The apex court, in a September 2011 order, had directed the SIT to file its final report before the magistrate court and had said that if the magistrate decides to close the case he has to provide the full SIT report to the complainant and hear her, before closing it.

Last month, the SIT had submitted its final report in a sealed cover on a complaint by Zakia demanding that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other top politicians, police officers and bureaucrats should be made accused for the 2002 riots cases.

Earlier, SIT consul R S Jamaur had opposed Zakia's plea saying that they have not submitted a complete report in the court yet. He had argued that the court would first go through the report and decide as to what to do with it.

However, during arguments in previous hearing of the case on February 29, Zakia's lawyers had argued that the SIT has no locus standi to oppose the opening of the report in the court. They had contended that the report once submitted in the court becomes a public document and anybody can access it.

Hence, they being a complainant cannot be denied access to it. Her lawyers had also stated in the last hearing that since this is a final report submitted by the SIT after completing the investigations, it is only the court which can decide on the issues related to the report.